Engagement mechanism for engaging a roller with a lower track of a sliding door

ABSTRACT

An engagement mechanism of a hanging sliding door including a roller for rolling along a lower track; a connector for connecting the engagement mechanism to the respective sliding door, where the connector includes a supporting portion and an extended portion allowing holding the roller at a predefined distance from the respective sliding door; and an elastic member such as a spring connected to the roller in a manner that allows the roller to move along an axis of the elastic member that is substantially perpendicular to the sliding door tracks. The extended portion includes a holding member for holding the elastic member there-above in a manner that allows the elastic member to apply force from below the roller towards the lower track located above the roller for maintaining engagement between the roller and the lower track throughout the sliding movement thereof.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to devices or systems for sliding elements for sliding doors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Hanging doors and other sliding doors require high accuracy in positioning of the lower and upper tracks since any misalignment in leads to poor sliding smoothness and efficiency. Over the years there is also some erosion of this parallelism of the tracks or dirt accumulating in parts thereof making it difficult for the rollers to smoothly slide therethrough. These changes and/or inaccuracies may shorten the life span and decrease the general quality of closets or other compartment facilities having sliding doors. Hanging sliding doors typically involve a set of upper and lower rollers that slide through lower and upper tracks, respectively, where the lower rollers are often located below the lower track so as to engage therewith from below.

A U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,072 discloses an apparatus is provided for supporting and drivingly opening and closing an overhead single-panel door such as a garage door. The apparatus includes drive rollers protruding from the plane of the door at respective opposite upper corners thereof, which drive rollers are bearingly supported by a plate member attached to the door. These drive rollers are supported from underneath and in driving contact with fixed guide tracks arranged at the building accommodating the door. In order to insure continuous firm driving engagement of the drive rollers with the topside of the guide track, a bearing bracket is rotatably supported at the drive roller axles, which bearing bracket in turn supports a pair of counterpressure rollers engageable directly at the underside of the guide track. The counterpressure rollers are spaced from one another in the direction of travel of the guide roller at respective opposite sides of a line through the axle with the drive roller and extending downwardly, such that at least one of these counterpressure rollers is continuously in supporting backing engagement with the guide track so as to assist in assuring a firm driving contact between the guide rollers and the guide track. In preferred embodiments, an additional spring support system is provided between the drive roller and the bracket supporting the drive roller axle and the door, so as to provide an additional biasing force in the downward direction on the drive roller. In this case the roller applies pressure downwardly over the track since it engages the track from above. This solution is for keeping engagement by applying spring force hanging from above forcing the lower part of the roller to engage the upper part of the track, where the lower part of the track thereby engages a counterpessure roller.

A patent No. GB1343896 discloses a sliding door assembly that comprises a door slidable between upper and lower sets of horizontal axis rollers mounted on the side of a post. One roller 4 is driven by a shaft (17, FIG. 3). An eccentric sleeve (5) partially around the drive roller carries a radial arm (19, FIG. 4) which is spring biased, so that the sleeve urges the roller into engagement with the door. Rollers 13 have concave surfaces to guide the door. Further rollers 10, 11 are provided on a second post 9 with a stop 12. A screw is connected to a spring, the spring being connected to the eccentric sleeve to pull the sleeve down and thus force the drive roller upwards to maintain contact with a bottom horizontal edge of the door.

A U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,593 discloses a supporting roller assembly for a sliding door that has a downwardly spring loaded guide track engaging roller supported for vertical floating movement by a mounting bracket containing a limited stop plunger which is spring loaded downwardly against the roller carrier. The bracket is slotted and carries a clamp screw accessible from the side of the door for clamping the bracket firmly about the plunger to secure the plunger in a fixed position for limiting upward movement of the guide roller against the action of its spring. The movable door panel is supported at its bottom on a track extending along the bottom of the door frame by means of roller assemblies mounted within a downwardly opening channel along the lower edge of the door panel. Each roller assembly has a peripherally grooved roller which rides in the track and is supported for vertical floating movement on a mounting bracket which is fixed within the bottom door channel. The roller carrier is spring loaded downwardly toward the track so as to yieldably retain the roller in proper guiding contact with the track in the event that the sliding door panel is inadvertently elevated away from the track during opening and closing movement thereof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided an engagement mechanism of a hanging sliding door of a compartment such as a closet having a lower track and an upper track for the sliding door to slide therethrough, wherein the engagement mechanism comprises: (i) at least one guide roller for rolling along the lower track;(ii) a connector for connecting the engagement mechanism to the respective sliding door, wherein the connector comprises a supporting portion and an extended portion allowing holding the roller at a predefined distance from the respective sliding door; and (iii) an elastic member such as a coiled spring, for instance, connected to the roller in a manner that allows the roller to move along an axis of the elastic member that is substantially perpendicular to the sliding door tracks. The extended portion comprises a holding member for holding the elastic member there-above in a manner that allows the elastic member to apply force from below the roller towards the lower track located above the roller for maintaining engagement between the roller and the lower track throughout the sliding movement of the sliding door.

Optionally, the extended portion comprises an opening and a protruding member enabling to hold the coiled spring from below thereby allowing flexibly pressing the roller to the lower track from below.

According to some embodiments, the roller connects to the extended portion via a fastening mechanism configured to fasten the roller to the extended portion in a manner in which the roller is positioned at a distance from the extended member.

Optionally, the extended portion comprises an angular structure comprising (i) a first portion that angularly connects to the supporting portion, where the supporting portion connects to the sliding door, and (ii) a second portion angularly connected to the first portion.

The angle between the first portion and the supporting portion may be substantially straight (90°) and the angle between the first portion and second portion may also be substantially straight.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the engagement mechanism further comprises an adjustment mechanism for allowing fine adjusting of the location of the engagement mechanism in respect to the door.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of an engagement mechanism for hanging sliding doors, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a frontal isometric view of the engagement mechanism, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows the engagement mechanism engaging a lower track of a sliding door, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows the engagement mechanism engaging a lower track of a sliding door in a close-up view, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following detailed description of various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part thereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, provides an engagement mechanism for hanging sliding doors of compartments such as closets, cupboards and the like. The engagement mechanism is configured to support the sliding movement of a roller such as a wheel or a spherical bearing, allowing the lower track, for compartment-sliding door configuration in which the lower track of the compartment is designed to be located above the roller.

The term “hanging sliding door” refers to a sliding door that covers the outer rim of the compartment for esthetical reasons to allow only viewing the sliding doors from a frontal view of the compartment, where the compartment's frame is hidden by the sliding door(s) meaning that the height of the sliding door(s) is either equal or higher than the height of the compartment frame.

Known in the art hanging sliding doors are usually configured as “top hung” sliding doors, in which the sliding door is hung from above by trolley hangers. In this configuration the entire weight of the door is carried by the top hangers from above.

The present invention allows additional or alternative support of the door's weight from below using one or more lower sliding tracks of the compartment, since it offers an engaging mechanism that allows keeping each roller of one or more of the sliding doors engaged with its respective lower track (e.g. just the inner sliding door or also the outer sliding door). This allows the weight of the respective sliding door to additionally or alternatively be carried by lower components of the compartment—such as by a lower track thereof engaging the roller of the engagement mechanism from below.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the engagement mechanism includes: (i) at least one roller for rolling along a lower track; (ii) a connector for connecting the engagement mechanism to the respective hanging sliding door, where the connector includes a supporting portion, which connects to the sliding door and an extended portion, which connects to the roller; and (iii) an elastic member such as a coiled spring, which elastically connects to the roller in a manner that allows the roller to move along an axis of the elastic member that is substantially perpendicular to the sliding door tracks,

According to some embodiments, the extended portion includes a holding member for holding the elastic member there-above in a manner that allows the roller to apply force from below towards the lower track of the compartment located above the roller for maintaining engagement between the roller and the lower track throughout the sliding movement of the sliding door.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 1-2, schematically illustrating an engagement mechanism 100 for hanging sliding doors, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

The engagement mechanism 100 includes a connector 110 for connecting thereof to the sliding door that includes a supporting portion 115 a, and an extended portion 115 b. The supporting portion 115 a is configured to allow connecting thereof to a lower portion of the respective sliding door e.g. by screwing the supporting portion 115 a to a back side lower portion of the sliding door through a designated groove 117 in the supporting portion 115 a of the connector 110.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, the engagement mechanism 100 also includes a wheel guide roller 20 and a coiled spring 122 elastic member. The spring 122 provides the roller 20 with the ability to move along a vertical axis “z” (see FIG. 1) substantially perpendicular to the sliding movement of the roller 20 and sliding door, in response to “irregularities” of the lower track. These irregularities may be, for example, if the lower and upper tracks of the compartment are not parallel to a very high accuracy level in case the compartment system includes upper tracks as well when the lower track is not leveled enough and/or has bumps thereover. This will be further elaborated in the description of FIGS. 3-4 showing the lower track of the compartment.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, the extended portion 115 b includes an opening 121 a having a protruding member 121 b at its bottom edge for holding the coiled spring 122 thereover from below. The roller 20 includes an inner groove 21 for receiving a protruding lower track type for sliding thereover by rolling.

FIGS. 1-2 also show how the roller 20 is held by the connector 110 extended portion 115 b by having a screw 25 inserted to the extended portion 115 b through it opening 121 a and fastened thereto through a movable connecting member 22 that attaches to the outer surface of the extended portion 115 b, where the screw 25 is inserted through a designated perforation of the movable connecting member 22 and through the opening 121 a and be fastened to the extended portion 115 b by using a nut 24 and optionally also one or more O-rings 23 to reduce friction therebetween.

As shown in FIGS. 1-2, the coiled spring 122 is held from below and therefore the lower protruding member 121 b serves as a lower fixation point of the coiled spring 122 allowing the spring 122 to move along the “z” axis to contract or to stretch, in response to the vertical movements of the roller 20 when moved along the lower track of the respective compartment.

According to some embodiment so the present invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, the engagement mechanism 100 may also include an adjustment mechanism 30 located at the supporting portion 110 of the connector 110. The adjustment mechanism 30 is configured to allow adjusting the location of the entire connector 110 in respect to the edge of the sliding door and the tracks of the door (the lower track and optionally also the upper track) by including: (i) a first adjustment mechanism including a movable member 33 and an adjustment member 32 (e.g. a screw 32 threaded to a designated female thread of the movable member 33) that allows adjusting the location of the connector 110 in respect to the door along the “z” vertical axis by determining the thread rate of the screw 32, for example; and (ii) an elastic member such as another coiled spring 31 stretched along a vertical axis of the connector 110 allowing fine adjustment of the connector 110 location along the vertical axis by enabling to contract/stretch in respect to vertical movements of the sliding door it connects to.

In the engagement mechanism 100 embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1-4 the roller 20 and the spring 122 are not located in the same planes—meaning that the roller 20 is held in a slightly distant position in respect to the coiled spring 122. The connection of the roller 20 to the connector 110 through the movable connecting member 22 allows the coiled spring 122 to vertically move in response to the roller's 20 vertical movements.

However, in other embodiments of the present invention, the coiled spring and roller may be located one above the other over the same plane so that they share the same vertical axis.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, multiple rollers can be connected (through one or more connectors) to the same sliding door each connected to a different elastic member such as a coiled spring.

In the above-described embodiments, the roller 20 includes a groove 21 for receiving and engaging a “protruding lower track” such as protruding lower track 50 a, as illustrated in FIG. 4. However, in other embodiments of the present invention, the roller can include a substantially flattened outer rolling surface instead of the groove as described above. In these embodiments the lower track that should engage this roller is a “receptor lower track” (Not shown) configured to receive and enclose the roller therein. In most hanging doors protruding tracks are used for esthetical reasons.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 3-4, schematically illustrating how the engagement mechanism 100 as described in respect to FIGS. 1-2 engages an outer protruding lower track 50 a of a closet along which the roller 20 is to roll, where the engagement mechanism 100 is connected to an inner sliding door 200 a of the closet. The closet, in this example, has two sliding doors: the inner sliding door 200 a and an outer sliding door 200 b located in a manner that enables the doors 200 a and 200 b to slide one passed the other as they are located at two different parallel planes.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the outer protruding lower track 50 a engages the groove 21 of the roller 20 of the engagement mechanism 100 for supporting and sliding of the inner sliding door 200 a. Another roller 20 b having a groove 21 b therein engages an inner protruding lower track 50 b for supporting and sliding the outer sliding door 200 b.

According to some embodiments, as illustrated in FIGS. 3-4, the outer and inner protruding lower tracks 50 a and 50 b, respectively, are connected (may be integrally connected) to one another and are parts of a tracks frame-structure 50 that connects to the closet frame. The frame-structure 50 can be a profile made of ridged materials such as metal or plastic that connects to the frame of the compartment (e.g. closet frame).

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the coiled spring 122 of the engagement mechanism 100 allows flexibly carrying the load of the inner sliding door 200 a thereupon, since it engages the outer protruding lower track 50 a from below, where slight vertical movements occurring when the inner sliding door 200 a is slides through are compensated by contraction or stretching of the coiled spring 122 holding the roller 20, keeping the roller 20 engaged with its track 50 a throughout the sliding of the door 200 a.

The engagement mechanism as described above, allows overcoming slight errors in alignment of the lower and/or upper tracks of the compartment while still allowing the roller to roll through the track as well as to engage the track throughout the sliding movement preventing the lower track engaging the roller of the engagement mechanism from being thrown out of the roller groove or from the roller from being thrown out of the track (depending on engagement mechanism configuration) with any misalignment of the lower and optionally upper track or encounter with obstacles in the track(s) such as dirt of misconfiguration of the track in one or more locations thereover.

Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiment has been set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following invention and its various embodiments and/or by the following claims. For example, notwithstanding the fact that the elements of a claim are set forth below in a certain combination, it must be expressly understood that the invention includes other combinations of fewer, more or different elements, which are disclosed in above even when not initially claimed in such combinations. A teaching that two elements are combined in a claimed combination is further to be understood as also allowing for a claimed combination in which the two elements are not combined with each other, but may be used alone or combined in other combinations. The excision of any disclosed element of the invention is explicitly contemplated as within the scope of the invention.

The words used in this specification to describe the invention and its various embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification structure, material or acts beyond the scope of the commonly defined meanings. Thus if an element can be understood in the context of this specification as including more than one meaning, then its use in a claim must be understood as being generic to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by the word itself.

The definitions of the words or elements of the following claims are, therefore, defined in this specification to include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth, but all equivalent structure, material or acts for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements in the claims below or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim. Although elements may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, it is to be expressly understood that one or more elements from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination and that the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within the scope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements.

The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted and also what essentially incorporates the essential idea of the invention.

Although the invention has been described in detail, nevertheless changes and modifications, which do not depart from the teachings of the present invention, will be evident to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are deemed to come within the purview of the present invention and the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An engagement mechanism of a hanging sliding door of a compartment having a lower track and an upper track for said sliding door to slide therethrough, said engagement mechanism comprising: at least one roller for rolling along a lower track; a connector for connecting said engagement mechanism to the respective sliding door, said connector comprises a supporting portion, which connects to said sliding door and an extended portion, which movably connects to said roller; and an elastic member connected to said roller in a manner that allows the roller to move along an axis of said elastic member that is substantially perpendicular to said sliding door tracks, wherein said extended portion comprises a holding member for holding said elastic member there-above in a manner that allows the roller to apply force from below towards the lower track located above said roller for maintaining engagement between said roller and said lower track throughout the sliding movement of said sliding door.
 2. The engagement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said elastic member comprises a coiled spring.
 3. The engagement mechanism according to claim 2, wherein said extended portion comprises an opening and a protruding member enabling to hold said coiled spring from below thereby allowing flexibly pressing said roller to said lower track from below.
 4. The engagement mechanism according to claim 2, wherein said roller connects to said extended portion via a fastening mechanism configured to fasten said roller to said extended portion in a manner in which the roller is positioned at a distance from said extended member.
 5. The engagement mechanism according to claim 4, wherein said extended portion comprises an angular structure comprising (i) a first portion that angularly connects to said supporting portion, said supporting portion connects to said sliding door, and (ii) a second portion angularly connected to said first portion.
 6. The engagement mechanism according to claim 5, wherein the angle between said first portion and supporting portion is substantially straight and the angle between said first portion and second portion is substantially straight.
 7. The engagement mechanism according to claim 1 further comprising an adjustment mechanism for allowing fine adjusting of the location of said engagement mechanism in respect to the door.
 8. The engagement mechanism according to claim 1 of a compartment having at least two hanging sliding doors: an inner door and an outer door, said compartment comprises a fame-structure, which is a profile having a first lower track and a second lower track connected to one another wherein said engagement mechanism is configured for sliding the inner door over said first lower track. 